If I ruled the world, or the Venice Film Festival anyway, I would have awarded the Venezia 2012, Leone d’oro to Daniele Cipri’ for his E’ Stato Il Figlio (It was the son). I Love Italian movies, obviously, and I’m not always the impartial observer, but I think it was the best. Though this year’s winner seems to have won because of a glitch in the jury system, it was my second choice; Pieta’ From Kim Ki-duk.
Pieta’ is the kind of movie my husband, Brian, usually drags me to, falls asleep halfway through, and then makes me tell him about all the bloody sceens on the way home. I am squeamish about violence in movies and Korean films are not my favorite, but I knew when I watched Pieta’ that I was seeing something special.
Pieta’ is about a brutal young man who lives a solitary life collecting money for a loan shark and cares only about himself. His methods of collecting what is owed exceed even his boss’s expectations, and he is quickly becoming the neighborhood’s most hated man.
When a woman comes to him and tells him that she’s the mother that abandoned him at birth, he rejects her at first, and then giddily embraces being a son who is loved. It’s very hard to watch and yet extremely beautiful; Deborah Young from the Hollywood Reporter said: ” it’s not an exaggeration to say there’s not a single pleasant moment in the film’s first half, and most Western audiences are going to find this very tough going.”
The film is a psychological study of an inhuman man’s rebirth, fierce mother-love and revenge and it is one of the most powerful I’ve seen in a long time. It is deserving of the top prize, even though it seems to won because of an odd and very controversial Venice Film Festival rule. Though the jury preferred The Master for the top prize, no film can win more than two awards, and so Pieta‘ will return to Korea with a Golden Lion.
I Love Italian Everything 